North America - Southeast (Geographic Keyword)
151-175 (537 Records)
Genetic data, especially from ancient samples, is frequently incorporated into modern archaeological analyses. Concurrently, sequence data from genetic/genomic research in the U.S. is increasingly available through open source context from the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). However, in spite of the accessibility of recently published genetic data, there currently is no comprehensive database exclusively for North American ancient DNA samples, nor is there comprehensive...
Documenting Archaeological Contexts with 3D Photography (2017)
Photography has long been one of the best tools archaeologists have for creating a visual record of excavations and contexts in the field. In recent years a variety of new techniques, from laser scanning to photogrammetry, have been developed and employed throughout the world that now allow archaeologists to create a three-dimensional photographic record. This paper explores one such technique—structure from motion—that has been used for mapping and to document excavated contexts at the late...
Documenting Southeastern Indian Coalescence during the early Carolina Indian Trade (2016)
Past research has outlined the profound effects of the Carolina Indian deerskin and slave trade on the cultural landscape of the Southeast during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. This work has identified a number of historical processes (e.g., population movements, disease, endemic violence, and economic transformation) stemming from the interaction of southeastern Indian and European Colonial worlds. Together, these processes forged a dynamic, even chaotic, landscape. In...
Documenting the Forced Migration of Enslaved Peoples at the Grassmere Plantation, Nashville, Tennessee Using Strontium and Lead Isotope Analyses (2017)
The Grassmere Plantation in Nashville, Tennessee was established in 1810, and documents show that unnamed, enslaved peoples labored there throughout the decades until emancipation. Our research investigates whether enslaved laborers were born and raised on the plantation or were forcibly moved there later in their lives. To address that question, we analyzed strontium and lead isotope ratios from tooth enamel. Twenty burials were recovered from Grassmere, and we obtained strontium and lead...
Double Palisades and Double Frequencies: Comparing Single-Channel and Dual-Channel Ground Penetrating RADAR data from Hiwassee Island. (2016)
The vast majority of Ground Penetrating RADAR (GPR) surveys have used one ultra-wide band frequency range when examining sites. With this choice come assumptions of the maximum depth and size of potential features as there is always a trade-off in GPR between depth range and maximum resolution. A multi-component site or one with extended occupation may warrant surveys with different GPR antennas in order to reach the earlier occupations and still resolve small features, such as post molds....
Early Archaic through Middle Archaic Design Elements on Artifacts from the Basin at Little Salt Spring (8SO18), Sarasota County, Florida (2016)
Underwater excavations in the basin of Little Salt Spring by the University of Miami since 1992 have recovered seven artifacts made from bone, wood, and shell with applied design elements from contexts associated with Early Archaic through Middle Archaic periods. These design elements represent some of the earliest known from Florida; as early as 10560 to 10253 Cal. BP (2‐sigma). An analysis of these artifacts will be presented, with their relative and absolute dates, and compared to regional...
Early Life Stress at the Late Prehistoric/Early Contact Site of Fallen Tree: Combining Enamel Defects and Incremental Isotope Analysis of Dentin to Explore Nutrition as a Source of Stress (2017)
This study examines internal enamel micro-defects and incremental isotopic data from tooth dentin to reconstruct early life stress and dietary histories of Guale individuals interred at the Late Precontact/Early Contact period site of Fallen Tree (A.D. mid-1500s) on Saint Catherines Island, Georgia. Fallen Tree presents a new point in the chronology of indigenous biocultural adaptation to Spanish missionization in the southeastern United States. Missionization is associated with increased...
Early Village Societies in the American South and Beyond (2015)
From his early work on social evolution in Mesoamerica to his more recent macrohistory of coalescent societies, Steve Kowalewski has epitomized the big picture approach to anthropological archaeology. Taking a cue from the latter body of work, as well as the recent overview of the topic by Bandy and Fox, we work toward a macrohistory of early village societies. Building from recent work at the Crystal River site (8CI1) on Florida’s west central Gulf Coast, we look to commonalities in early...
Eat local, Think Global? The Intersections of Knowledge, Culture, and Subsistence at Woodland Coastal Sites in the Southeastern USA. (2016)
Along the northern parts of the Gulf and Atlantic coasts of Florida and southern Georgia, coastal sites of the Deptford and Swift Creek archaeological cultures (circa A.D. 1 to 600) map onto the distinctive estuarine and salt marsh ecological zones of the region. Beyond their similar environments, inhabitants within this region seem to have been united by a cultural milieu characterized by commonalities in village life, material culture, ritual practices, and ostensibly, patterns of subsistence....
Economic Intensification and Social Differentiation: A View from the Late Woodland Southeast (2017)
Intensification has long been equated with the rise of tightly-controlled economies, often in association with incipient social inequality. Previous research has sometimes suggested that centralized control is necessary both for the development of intensification as a viable economic strategy, and for the management of its repercussions. Here, we present evidence from Kolomoki, Crystal River, and Roberts Island, three prominent Late Woodland (ca. A.D. 500-1000) mound centers of the American...
The effects of reenactment on historic battlefields: a pilot study from McLemore Cove, Georgia (2016)
Natural and historic resource managers are confronted with conflicting obligations and priorities; they must provide access to a resource while simultaneously protecting the resource for future generations. This tension between use and preservation is apparent when members of the public want to stage military reenactments on historic battlefields. Military reenactors are a passionate constituency who support battlefield preservation and volunteer time and funds to preserve these resources. Many...
Eighteenth-Century Choctaw Pottery from Fort Tombecbe (2015)
The French established Fort Tombecbe in 1736, in part, to secure their relationship with the eastern Choctaw. Over the following twenty-seven years, thousands of Choctaws visited the fort to trade, and, by 1763, a large town was located nearby. Choctaw pottery recently excavated from French components at the fort adds to a regional and offers insights into the relationship between the Choctaw and French during the middle of the eighteenth century at a remote frontier fort. SAA 2015 abstracts...
Elemental Analysis of Late Archaic Copper from the McQueen Shell Ring, St. Catherines Island, Georgia (2017)
Excavations conducted at the McQueen Shell Ring site on St Catherines Island off the coast of Georgia recovered several fragments of a copper artifact. These fragments represent an artifact made from a thin sheet of copper, and were recovered from a Late Archaic feature with calibrated radiocarbon dates placing its use between 2300 and 1800 BC. Seven of these fragments were analyzed at the Elemental Analysis Facility of the Chicago Field Museum of Natural History to determine elemental...
Elucidating Fort Walton in Florida: Chronology and Mound Construction at the Lake Jackson Site (2016)
Along the periphery of the Mississippian Art and Ceremonial Complex, the Lake Jackson site existed as a multi-mound ceremonial center whose material contents included objects bearing widespread symbols connected with complex traditions in the long-lived history of Native American iconography and ceremonialism. This paper investigates the occupation chronology of the site through an analysis of its ceramic assemblage and artifact proveniences with a particular focus on Mound 5, a...
The Emergence and Distribution of Beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) in the Upper Tennessee River Valley (2015)
This is a preliminary study of beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) recovered from late prehistoric and historic Native American sites in East Tennessee. Beans are known to be the last domesticated plant that was adopted by late prehistoric cultures in the Eastern Woodlands. In the Southeast, the emergence of beans is not clearly understood because no regional studies have been done and very few samples have been directly dated to establish a chronology. This problem is addressed by analyzing the spatial...
Emergence of Place: the Great Circle of Fort Center, Glades County, Florida (2015)
In South Florida, earthen enclosures represent some of the earliest and largest communal monuments. At around 300 meters in diameter, Fort Center in Glades County, Florida contains one of the largest enclosures in the entire Southeast. As the earliest recorded earthwork at Fort Center, I argue the construction of the Great Circle acts as a trigger and anchor for coalescence and the establishment of place. Since this event occurs during a period of long term fisher-hunter-gatherer practices,...
The Emerging 13,000 to 15,000 cal yr B.P. Archaeological Record of North America South of the Continental Ice Sheets (2017)
Ruth Gruhn was an early advocate for a human presence in the Americas prior to Clovis. Gruhn and her late husband, Alan Bryan, excavated and reported on early sites in both North and South America and championed the Pacific coast as the route taken by the earliest people to reach the Americas. Their predictions have become a reality. Genetic and geological evidence is supporting a coastal migration route into the Americas. Recent discoveries at the Page-Ladson site, Florida, the Debra L....
Engaging the Living in Honor of the Dead: the Cemetery Resource Protection Training (CRPT) Program across Florida (2016)
The flagship program to come out of FPAN’s Northeast Regional Center, hosted by Flagler College in St. Augustine, is the Cemetery Resource Protection Training (CRPT) workshop. CRPT developed in an effort to curb the mass deterioration of historic cemeteries across the state, particularly in Jacksonville, Palatka, and Fernandina Beach where municipal governments are responsible for their preservation and maintenance. Outcomes of CRPT were the subject of a recent AAP article (Miller 2015:275-290)...
Environmental Processes and the Archaeological Record along the Louisiana Coast (2015)
The environmental processes of erosion and subsidence are key post-depositional factors affecting the formation of the archaeological record along coastal Louisiana. These factors contribute to terrestrial archaeological site loss and present researchers with a unique set of challenges for understanding past human behavior at both local and regional scales. From 2010 to 2014, HDR visited a total of 212 sites across 5,293 km during a survey of the Louisiana coast. This paper provides new insights...
Episodic Habitation in an Eolian Environment, 1350 B.C. - A.D. 900, Useppa Island, Coastal Southwest Florida (2015)
Excavations (2012) on southwest Florida’s subtropical Useppa Island revealed a stratigraphic sequence of alternating eolian-sand and shell-midden layers, mostly dating from 1350 to 1000 B.C., with the highest midden dating to A.D. 900. Predictably, the Late Archaic artifact assemblages (pottery, shell artifacts, etc.) differ greatly from the younger Caloosahatchee IIB one. However, surprisingly the invertebrate faunal assemblages also differ. And there is a general dearth of fish remains in the...
Esnesv Stories: Muskogee Oral Traditions, Trader-Diplomats, and Sacred Landscapes (2015)
It has long been obvious to archaeologists that Mississippian and Woodland mound centers in Southeastern and Midwestern United States were parts of large-scale regional exchange networks. However, modeling how goods moved from point A to point B remains more troublesome. Do these goods represent direct or down the line exchange? Do they represent a shared ceremonial complex or loose connections between very different complexes? Oral traditions maintained by a descendant Muskogee (Creek) tribal...
An Ethnobotanical Approach to an Apalachee Ceramic Jar (2016)
A nearly intact, Chattahoochee roughened variety Chattahoochee, Apalachee ceramic jar was excavated in the 2014 summer field season by the University of West Florida Colonial Frontiers Archaeological Field School. It was recovered from the Spanish mission of San Joseph de Escambe situated in northwest Florida and occupied from 1741-1761. Testing of the vessel for organic residue, specifically Ilex vomitoria, may provide evidence to support to a hypothesis that the vessel was used to serve the...
Evaluating Mass Capture Fishing Techniques (2015)
The term "mass capture" is widely used in archaeological and zooarchaeological discourse to connote any form of fish capture besides active, individual procurement of a single fish such as hook and line or spear fishing. Unfortunately, this blanket term obscures the diversity and range of mass capture techniques and other critical factors that have implications for archaeological and anthropological interpretation such as materials, technology, ecology, and labor, among other variables. To begin...
Evaluation of the Pensacola Relative Ceramic Chronology by Percentage Stratigraphy Seriation (2016)
In parts of the U.S. Southeast, including south Alabama, relative ceramic chronologies for prehistoric archaeological sequences are based on descriptive type-variety systems of classification that have remained unevaluated by seriation methods. This project assesses the chronological utility of the type-variety classification for Pensacola archaeological culture ceramics through the application of seriation methods to collections from three extensively excavated sites on Mobile Bay....
The Everyday of the Hominy Foodway: Changing Lifeways During Early Moundville (2016)
Between A.D. 1120-1260 in the Black Warrior River valley of west-central Alabama, a Mississippian identity first began to take shape that ultimately led to the materialization of the civic-ceremonial center of Moundville. While traditional models hold that feasting played an important role in this process, in this presentation, I propose that the adoption of an ancestral hominy foodway during this formative period restructured everyday household activities, seasonal procurement strategies, and...